


Happy Birthday, Nico

by percyspandapillowpet



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Surprise Party, birthday fic, sorry this is technically 50 minutes late in my time zone oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 14:57:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9497093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/percyspandapillowpet/pseuds/percyspandapillowpet
Summary: A surprise party for a boy who really deserves one.





	

**Author's Note:**

> AHH this is a bit late I'm sorry...I had been planning to write this for a MONTH now but of course I remembered at 11:30...now it's 12:52 and technically January 29th. Oh, well. Happy belated birthday, Nico! Sorry if this seems a little rushed, it's definitely not my best, considering how quickly I tried to write it. But nonetheless, enjoy :)

Nico knows what day it is as soon as he wakes up and realizes the date, but he doesn’t expect anyone else to.

He quickly gets dressed and exits his cabin, pulling the hood of his black sweatshirt over his head in an attempt to keep a low profile. That’s what he strives for every morning—but it never stops his boyfriend from running up behind him, pulling it down, and ruffling his hair on their way to breakfast.

“It’s too early for this, Will,” Nico grumbles, as per usual. He doesn’t really mean it, of course. He’d never admit it, but breakfast with him is always his favorite part of each day.

“Sorry,” Will replies, smiling cheerfully and falling into step beside him. “Sometimes I forget that not everyone is a morning person, you know? But that’s me, always up with the sun.”

Nico nods, noticing the way his hand swings back and forth as he walks. He resists the urge to reach out and grab it, to stop its movement, and then he remembers he doesn’t have to.

Will beams, as he always does when Nico initiates something for once, but doesn’t comment on it. “So,” he says instead as they approach the pavilion, “any plans for today?”

Nico halts in his tracks, pulling Will to a stop as well. 

Does he know? 

“What do you mean?” he asks, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Will looks at him funny, like he has something on his nose. Out of self-consciousness, Nico reaches up to scratch it.

“Oh,” he finally says after a moment of assessing him, and something weird clicks in his eyes. “Oh. Never mind.”

Nico isn’t sure how he feels about Will’s strange new smirk, but he just brushes it off as nothing important and breathes a sigh of relief. Good. Now, at least he knows he’s relieved of whatever disaster Will could have possibly planned for his birthday.

***

“I’ll be right back, Nico,” Will says, leaving a quick kiss on his forehead. “I’ve got something to take care of in the infirmary.”

He feels a little bad about leaving his boyfriend and siblings during their music class, but he figures that once he explains what he is doing, they will understand. Not wasting any time, he heads straight for the training arena, where he knows Percy and Jason will be sparring.

“Hey, guys,” he announces, walking straight up to them.

They both lower their swords and whirl around. He also feels sort of bad for interrupting them, but this is more important than play-fighting in his eyes.

“Oh, hey, Will,” Jason greets. “What’s up?” He regards him with the attitude he has since he and Nico first started dating—not cold or resentful, per se, but with an air that said he will personally gain Will the wrath of the king of the gods if he so much as lay a finger on his “little brother.” It is a bit intimidating, but Will knows he trusts him.

“There’s been a change of plans,” Will explains. “Turns out, Nico doesn’t actually _know_ that his birthday is today.”

Percy raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure? I mean, he could be trying to hide it.”

Will shakes his head. “No way. He’s terrible at lying. He’s completely oblivious, I’m telling you.” He pulls out a scrap of notebook paper from his pocket and glances at it. “Also, turns out Frank can’t make it—someone has to stay behind as praetor, I guess. Anyways, I’m still going to meet Hazel and Reyna at the edge of camp, but I’m not going to take Nico with me. You two are going to have to keep him distracted.”

“Wait, why?” Percy asks. 

Jason nods. “I see. We’re turning this into a _surprise_ party.”

Will grins. “Exactly. Now, I’ve got to go talk to Piper and Annabeth about the setup. I’ll see you later!”

***

Nico figures right away that Jason and Percy are definitely up to something when they led him into the woods—he just can’t figure out what.

“Dude,” Jason says, in a completely fake excited voice, “I heard there’s some crazy rogue hydra in here right now.” He throws one arm around Nico’s shoulders, and Nico tries to shrug it off, to no avail. “I think we should go find it. You know, an adventure.”

“An adventure,” Percy agrees, doing the same. Great, now Nico’s stuck in a Big Three sandwich. “Just the three of us. For old times’ sake.”

Nico gives up on trying to push them away and allows himself to be dragged into the forest. “There was no old time with just the three of us,” he grumbles, but they ignore him.

“Come on,” Jason says, pointing ahead with his free arm. “Let’s wreck this thing!”

***

“Leave the cake over there somewhere,” Will tells Hazel, gesturing toward the other side of the Hades cabin. “We probably won’t get to it for a little while after he gets here. You know, one shock at a time.”

Hazel nods and hurries away.

Piper then walks up to him, holding a stack of plastic plates and forks. “Hey, speaking of him getting here…when’s that supposed to be?”

“Five o’ clock, sharp,” Annabeth calls from the across the room, where she and Reyna are hanging balloons. “And I swear to Poseidon, if Percy doesn’t keep him occupied for long enough—”

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door.

Will glances at the clock on Nico’s bedside table. Four fifty.

Annabeth must do the same, or perhaps she just has a scarily accurate sense of time. Will honestly wouldn’t be surprised. “Ten minutes early,” she mutters. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Everyone to places!” Will whisper-shouts, and the four girls all gather around him, abandoning their tasks.

Then the door opens.

***

Nico isn’t sure what he’s expecting when he barges into his cabin after being repeatedly coaxed away and blockaded from the door by Percy and Jason, but it certainly isn’t…this.

“Surprise!” a chorus shouts as soon as he steps in. Piper throws a jar of confetti in the air, and it gets all over his floor. Annabeth and Reyna are the only ones wearing party hats, and they’re both sort of crushed, like they bumped their heads on the ceiling. Hazel is holding something in a white cardboard box…a cake. It’s pretty lackluster.

And Will…Will’s at the center of it all, arms spread wide and a huge, goofy grin on his face.

Normally, Nico would be upset. Normally, he’d be so angry and unsure of what to do that he’d order everyone to leave his cabin at once. But when Will laughs at his shocked expression, he can’t do anything but smile.

“Happy birthday, Nico!” everyone shouts, including Jason and Percy behind him. They shove him forward, and he falls into Will’s embrace—so he only glares at them a little bit.

Then Hazel declares that she’s going to cut the cake, and Piper offers to pass out plates, and the rest of his friends get into a squabble as to who should get the second piece—because, according to all of them, Nico obviously has to have the first.

It warms him from the inside out, and Will’s arms around him just add to it.

“Hey,” he murmurs into his boyfriend’s shoulder. “I thought you didn’t know when my birthday was.”

Will gasps in mock offense. “Are you kidding me? I thought _you_ had forgotten about it yourself. That’s why I made this into a surprise. I figured that if you had remembered, you would’ve expected it.”

Nico pulls back and gestures around the room. “Expected _this?_ No way.”

Will’s grin fades a little, then, and his voice lowers to something much less confident. “You like it though, right?” he asks. 

Nico rarely sees this side of Will—so unsure and insecure—but when he does, he always gets this powerful urge to hold him, wrap him in safety gear, and protect him forever.

He smiles and takes both of Will’s hands in his own. “Of course I don’t,” he replies. After waiting for a moment, watching Will’s face fall and feeling a little guilty, he laughs. “I _love_ it,” he corrects.

Will scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he squeezes Nico’s hands. “Good. I’m glad,” he says. Then he glances over his shoulder at what is most definitely utter chaos behind them in Nico’s mini kitchen. “Let’s go have some cake!”


End file.
